President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said on September 15 that it was “clear from the beginning” that the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, does not want “any agreement” on the formation of the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority, before it happens “what he (Kurti) calls informal recognition”.
Vučić made this statement while answering journalists’ questions during the exhibition of weapons, military equipment and a part of the capacities of the Armed Forces of Serbia, in Nis, in the south of the country, writes REL.
“I am grateful to the people in the European Union (EU) who made it clear who is responsible,” said Vučić.
He also said that he will not do anything that would harm the interests of Serbia.
The last round of dialogue in Brussels, on September 14, between the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić and the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, ended without progress in the normalization of relations.
This was the first meeting between Vučićand Kurti after the outbreak of violence in the north of Kosovo at the end of May.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, said that both sides have opposite positions, that Kurti first wants the political aspect of normalization, while Serbia wants to start the formation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority.
He said that the Prime Minister of Kosovo did not accept the EU proposal for compromise.
According to Borrell, Kurti considered that the first step should be the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state.
Kurti, on the other hand, said that at the meeting “neither the Serbian nor the Brussels side had any document as a proposal”.
After the last meeting in Brussels, Vučić told reporters that Serbia “accepted the compromise proposal of the EU”.
“We have to keep talking”, declared Vučić on Thursday.
In a statement for Radio Free Europe, the US Department of State has expressed disappointment that no progress has been made in the new round of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia for the normalization of relations.
“We expect both countries to take seriously their obligations with the agreement on the normalization of relations, which they reached earlier this year. Time is running. We want to see progress on existing and previous commitments undertaken in the dialogue and with the Ohrid Agreement, including the establishment of the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities,” said a US State Department spokesperson for REL on 14 September.
For the formation of the Association of municipalities with a Serbian majority, agreement was reached between the two parties, with the Brussels Agreement, in 2013.
Official Pristina persistently refuses to form it on the grounds that it is not in accordance with the laws of Kosovo, namely that they cannot become mono-ethnic associations.
The formation of the Association is required by the EU and the United States of America (USA).
